Katäfalsen: Difference between revisions

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=== Stress and intonation ===
=== Stress and intonation ===
Katäfalsen features a dynamic nonphonemic stress. It is analysable as binary, which means a syllable is either stressed, i.e. louder, or unstressed.  
Katäfalsen features a dynamic nonphonemic stress, which is always on the last syllable of a word as French. Because of the syllable structure CV(C), each word can be uniquely decomposed into fragments of the syllable structure CV with a final consonant, i.e. (CV)<sup>n</sup>C, and optionally one word final fragment of the syllable structure CV. The first syllables of these fragments receive secondary stresses: ''Katäfalsen'' is pronounced {{IPA|[ˈkɑtɑːfɑlˌsen]}}.  
 
 
 
 
 





Revision as of 22:24, 30 July 2019

Introduction

Katäfalsen (pronunciation: [ˈkɑtɑːfɑlsɛn]) is an apriori language, which is partially inspired by Basque, Hebrew and Latin. The aim was to construct a language with simple phonology along with unorthodox grammar and syntax. Katäfalsen is highly synthetic and features a free word order and ergative-absolutive alignment.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Modern Katäfalsen are as follows:

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m
/m/
n
/n/
Stop voiced b
/b/
d
/d/
g
/g/
voiceless p
/p/
t
/t/
k
/k/

/ʔ/
Fricative f
/f/
s
/s/
h
/x/
Approximant r
/ɹ/
j
/j/
w
/w/
Lateral approximant l
/l/

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Katäfalsen is quite symmetrical as there are each three front, back, rounded and unrounded vowels.

Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
Close i
/i/
y
/y/
u
/u/
Mid e
/e/
o
/o/
Open a
/ɑ/

The only vowel that distinguishes length is /ɑ/ contrasting phonemically with /ɑː/. The long vowel is represented by ä. The sequences /ɑj/, /ɑw/, /ɑːj/ and /ɑːw/ are realised as diphthongs, while adjacent vowels are usually pronounced in hiatus.

Alphabet

The Latin alphabet used for Katäfalsen therefore contains the following letters. Uppercase letters are used for the first letter of a sentence and proper nouns.

a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u w y ä
A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Ä

Phonotactics

The syllable structure in Katäfalsen is CV(C), where C denotes a consonant and V a vowel. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is only allowed as syllable onset and only intervocalically in hiatus and word initially, i.e. after a break. This is not represented in the orthography.

Metathesis and epenthesis

Metathesis occurs in Katäfalsen when a suffix beginning with a consonant is added to a word. If the word ends with a vowel or diphthong, the morphemes are simply concatenated. The suffix -n, which creates female forms, is used for examples here.

ki + n kin
kaj + n kajn

However, if the word ends with a consonant instead, metathesis of this consonant and the preceding vowel occurs.

fales + n falsen

In words that are either monosyllablic or feature a closed penultimate syllable (although very rare), an epenthetic vowel /ɑ/ is inserted.

sen + n asnen
meslip + n mesalpin

In addition, there is a class of words that ended with /ɑ/ but dropped the ending later. When taking suffixes, this vowel emerges again.

kat + n katan instead of aktan

The epenthetic /ɑ/ occurs also before words which consist of a single consonant and disappears when the word takes suffixes beginning with a vowel.

aj
aj + an jan

Vowel mutation

Old Katäfalsen had the additional phoneme /ħ/, which has disappeared in Modern Katäfalsen but has left still observable effects. We already know that the sequences /ɑj/, /ɑw/, /ɑːj/ and /ɑːw/ yield diphthongs. Moreover, whenever one of the phonemes /j/, /w/ and /ħ/ are syllable codae, they melt into the preceding vowel and cause the mutations summarised in the following table:

Codae
/ħ/ /j/ /w/
Nucleus /ɑ/ /ɑː/ /ɑj/ /ɑw/
/e/ /i/ /i/ /y/
/i/ /i/ /i/ /y/
/o/ /u/ /y/ /u/
/u/ /u/ /y/ /u/
/ɑː/ /ɑː/ /ɑːj/ /ɑːw/
/y/ /y/
/ɑj/ /ɑːj/
/ɑw/ /ɑːw/
/ɑːj/ /ɑːj/
/ɑːw/ /ɑːw/

The last five syllable nuclei are never followed by /j/ and /w/ because they solely arise from the mutations above and complex syllable codae are forbidden. When a suffix beginning with a vowel is attached to a word ending with a mutated vowel, the mutation is usually undone.

ty + antojan
ami + anamejan

As already mentioned, the class of words that ended with /ɑ/ in Old Katäfalsen behaves differently:

kat + ankataan [kɑtɑʔɑn]

Double consonants CC were changed to ħC in Old Katäfalsen and also triggered vowel mutation later.

welal + nwilan (via *wellan*weħlan)

In other positions, Old Katäfalsen /ħ/ has merged with /ʔ/. Intervocalically, i.e. syllable initially after a vowel or diphthong, /ħ/ triggered mutation of the preceding vowel nevertheless.

*meħelmiel [miʔel]

Stress and intonation

Katäfalsen features a dynamic nonphonemic stress, which is always on the last syllable of a word as French. Because of the syllable structure CV(C), each word can be uniquely decomposed into fragments of the syllable structure CV with a final consonant, i.e. (CV)nC, and optionally one word final fragment of the syllable structure CV. The first syllables of these fragments receive secondary stresses: Katäfalsen is pronounced [ˈkɑtɑːfɑlˌsen].